"It was just pure joy!"
Story by Daisy Arvonen
From the very beginning of Christian Pearson’s BYU experience, he knew that he wanted to be an Honors student. As a freshman, he took the prerequisites for the program and applied to be in the Honors Student Leadership Council soon after, before he had even taken an Unexpected Connections course. Now Pearson is a senior with a double major in Marketing and Spanish Studies. He is engaged in working on his Honors thesis, “Effects of Revenue Tracking for Small Businesses in an Emerging Market (Cambodia). The project has taken him across the world and is changing the lives of small business owners.
As a marketing student, Pearson started working with Professor Ben Beck on research in Cambodia. The project is focused on influencing social norms in Cambodia by helping small business owners track their revenue. Pearson became very invested in the project, and found that the research is something he quite enjoys. “I can’t tell you how excited I was to analyze this data. It did not feel like work. It was just pure joy,” he said.
Last winter, they focused on designing the experiment, which they carried out during the spring and summer. During that process, Pearson decided to make this project into his thesis. He explained that about 90% of Cambodians run their own businesses, not out of choice, but out of necessity. He said that most of them have a third-grade level education, and some are not literate. Many of these “survival entrepreneurs” as he calls them, have never tracked their revenue before.
Pearson and Dr. Beck’s team organized a 10-week experiment during which they trained 40 businesses in revenue tracking, followed up with them weekly, and collected quantitative and qualitative data from the business’s experiences. “This whole thing turned into something much bigger than just that because we've kind of discovered that revenue tracking in and of itself is a really great way to lift a community. It helps the business owners in so many different ways,” Pearson said.
According to Pearson, tracking revenue caused social changes. Because overspending is an issue for some Cambodians, keeping a record of what they were earning helped them maintain trust and accountability in their families. “Finances cause conflicts in almost every relationship, but especially in Cambodia,” Pearson explained, “So with revenue tracking where they're looking at, okay, what am I spending my money on and where is my money coming from and how much realistically do I have to spend? This is actually having a positive effect on conflict resolution and family relationships in a way that we didn't even really expect.”
Pearson said that the project has helped him become more curious, and ask questions about something he is really interested in. It has also taught him the value of investing time in other people. “Just the tiniest little bit of time or investment spent on a person in Cambodia—that can be life changing,” he said. One Cambodian man even broke down in tears as he expressed to Pearson his gratitude for them taking the time to check in on him and teach him. Pearson feels that the Cambodians he’s worked with have helped him more than he helped them. His eyes have been opened and he has learned to think outside of himself.
As his curiosity and passion for the Cambodia project increased, Pearson started a podcast called “Inside the Cambodia Project” with Professor Beck. In the podcast, he interviews experts, diving deeper and giving an insider perspective into the concepts they are learning in their research.
“I think I've always had questions, but once I started doing research on something I was actually interested in and becoming really invested— well, it's one thing to read someone else's research, it's quite another to perform your own,” Pearson concluded.